


thou shalt find me steadfast

by bessemerprocess



Category: Life
Genre: Eid, Gen, Home, Mothers and Daughters, Yuletide, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-25
Updated: 2007-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-04 13:13:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bessemerprocess/pseuds/bessemerprocess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dani Reese's mother still celebrated Eid, even after thirty years under her father's Christian roof.</p>
            </blockquote>





	thou shalt find me steadfast

_And when (his son) was old enough to walk with him, (Abraham) said: O my dear son, I have seen in a dream that I must sacrifice thee. So look, what thinkest thou ? He said: O my father! Do that which thou art commanded. Allah willing, thou shalt find me of the steadfast. _Qur'an 37:102

Dani Reese's mother still celebrated Eid, even after thirty years under her father's Christian roof. For all that it was supposed to be a celebratory holiday, Eid was a quite affair in the Reese household, one that Dani couldn't remember her father ever showing up for.

Her mother would wake early, and after a quick breakfast and prayer, she would drag Dani along with her to the grocery store. They filled the cart with lamb and apple sauce and pomegranates when her mother could find them. By them time they arrived home, Jack Reese would be gone, off to work, or perhaps a round of golf with some of his cronies.

Dani had never minded. It meant a day full of Farsi, of helping her mother stir and measure, a whole day of being wrapped in her mother's love. Her mother always made enough food for a small army. That's how food was supposed to be made for Eid, enough for your visiting neighbors and the poor, even though Dani figured the Reese's neighbors had probably never even heard of Eid.

Even in college, Dani made excuses to come home, to speak the language of her ancestors, but mostly to be in her mother's kitchen, with all the smells and tastes of home. Recipes handed down from mother to daughter, since long before the Europeans had colonized this land. The only year she'd ever skipped was last year, that undercover year, when she was so high, she hadn't known she'd missed it for weeks afterward.

This year, she'd put in for time off months in advance, just to make sure. The Lieutenant had known, had made it happen. So once more, she would return to her mother's kitchen and mend what she had torn. And like Ibrahim, her mother would welcome her, content that her daughter had been saved, as God had saved Ismail, so that neither had been sacrificed by their fathers.


End file.
